Y48 Elective Fair

[Professor James Cade]

It had just about turned into March and the weather had turned wonderfully mild. Nothing like February back home, James’ winter wardrobe stayed firmly back at the house in Virginia, he had no need of it during the school year. With the valentines dance firmly behind them it was time to turn their attention to the electives fair, a chance for second years to see what the school had to offer before choosing their additional classes for their third years and up.

James had finished setting up the tables and stalls for the basic set up of the fair. The professors teaching the electives would do the rest, banners with the name of each subject hung over them and soon they would filled with flyers, pamphlets and maybe even books. All to be flocked to by eager second years wondering which options would be the least worse option.

 

[Professor Benjamin Kaster II]

Ben had never been to an electives fair and personally he felt like they should probably be handled by the lower years professors, but he wasn’t going to just not appear just because he thought that, he’d been invited to come and it was being organised by Gryffindor Head of House James Cade this year apparently, Ben had a passing familiarity with the man and was happy to attend. For his table, he’d decided to cover it with a forest green, and more earthy brown table cloth, to help reflect the fact that most of the work they would be doing together would be in the woods, or at least on the grounds. He had a sign that read; Care of Magical Creatures - Learn all about Beasts behind his head as he sat at the desk, with the shimmering writing occasionally giving way to paw prints, claw marks and wings flapping in different places across the sign.

In lieu of live creatures, because that would be highly unethical given the nature of the creatures they would be learning about in his classes, he’d brought a preserved Dragon eggshell, he’d borrowed from his sister Jemima and illustrated creatures guides with moving images of Merpeople, unicorns, Dragons and anything else they might be interested in. On the table in front of him, he also had a couple of Guess the Creature Minigames, and the cards had effects that spoke a riddle, which they then had to place on the appropriate picture of the creature it spoke about. He was excited to see how things would go.
​

Out of Character:

pls @ ben if you have questions about COMC

 

[Professor Marigold Cooper]

Marigold’s last Elective’s fair had been a bit of a learning curve, she’d seen how her subject mate had handled it when Kahurangi had been far more prepared than she was, so now she had made a couple of adjustments to what she wanted to do. It was all a learning curve for her and that was what was important because she was picking it up as she went and she felt like that meant she was getting more comfortable in her job, at least she hoped that was what it meant. Her desk had a little sign on it that said Ancient Runes she didn’t bother adding a slogan or a catch phrase because she didn’t feel like it needed one. The symbols did change from english to runes every few seconds though, which she hoped would intrigue people enough to pop over to either herself or Kahurangi. She would be happy to answer any questions, or even give a rune reading.

She had brought with her stone runes, and a set of wood ones, she could switch them up based on vibe. Some people worked better with stone and others worked better with wood. She also had some tracing sand where students could practice tracing some runes, because sometimes she found the act of tracing a rune cathartic, especially if she was having a hard time. If they popped by to see her and ask her a question, she also had a small Kenaz rune for the students to take, knowledge, growth and learning - a good rune for starting their runic journey.
​

Out of Character:

pls @ ari if you have questions about ancient runes!

 

[Professor Conan Edogawa]

Conan... hadn't really been sure how he should go about the Electives Fair this year. He didn't think last year had been a total buzz, but Cairo had already left the school and well, Killian had just joined last year. Conan wasn't really the best meter for how the Elective Fair should go, but then again, Muggle Studies had never had the best reputation. After all, why would people with magic want to learn about people without. It was a hard sell even if Conan knew how needed it was to learn in order to continue to preserve and keep their way of living a secret. Still, he wasn't going to convince people by throwing all the information at them aggressively, they still needed to be curious and want to learn something at least. Even if it was just the smallest bit of interest. And so Conan ended up packing everything he could carry into four bags. Every bit of Muggle he had in his collection in his office was fit into four bags that he lugged from there all the way to the Courtyard.

Setting up was easy, there was already a desk there and he should probably put up a sign that said what class he and Killian were teaching, but he'd thought that the wide variety of muggle items on the table would be a fair sign of what they were teaching. Battleships, pack of Uno cards, Yahtzee, Cards Against Humanity, Monopoly, and Snakes and Ladders. There was a skateboard and fridge magnets and rubber ducks were and various colored pens and muggle textbooks on technology, engineering, and maths, and science. There were magazines of different varieties and old versions of muggle phones that he still couldn't make work. He may or may not be a hoarder, but hey, he was willing to give some out if it meant garnering interest in taking the class.​

Out of Character:

Tag Conan if you want any muggle items... or if you have questions

 

[Professor Killian Fox]

As far as preparing for the electives fair, Killian hadn't had the faintest of clue what to do so this year he had sort of left it for Conan which he had clearly done looking at the sheer amount of things the older Professor had brought. Very well then at least he had come prepared, Killian was here merely as moral support then. Raising an amused eyebrow he settled next to his colleague. "Someone brought their whole inventory huh?" He said before putting the few things he had brought himself, nothing fancy just an electric toothbrush, a bus card and an air tag. "I would have brought more but then again we already got half of a museum here so this should be fine, yeah?" It was more than just a half of a museum really.

Out of Character:

Feel free to @ Killian as well for any questions on MS, though please do subject Conan to as many questions about making the cellphones work as you possibly can

 

[Professor Kahurangi Josephs]

Kahurangi had always enjoyed the electives fair, relishing the chance to welcome new students to the joys of Ancient Runes. It was still jarring entering the fair and seeing someone other than Cyndi sitting at her table, but all things had to change eventually, she supposed. She greeted Ari cheerfully as she took her seat and set up her things, pamphlets and books piled high, a few different rune sets for students to look at plus her own pounamu runes if any of them wanted a reading, plus a jewelry tree adorned with bind rune amulets made by her last group of sixth years. Work done, she settled in and waited for the second years to join them.

 

[Elijah Edogawa]

Going to the elective fair felt a bit like cheating when he was mostly going to see his dad, but he supposed he could just pop in to see how everything else was. He wasn’t sure what electives he wanted to take, but he did want to take some, all of them, maybe, he couldn’t say for sure. He wasn’t even sure what he wanted to do with this time, though he was sure he wanted to be an Animagus and he was going to work towards that as much as he could. The discussion with Professor Pirrip hadn’t necessarily gone the way he’d wanted, but it had happened and that was good enough for now, he supposed. He was still a little annoyed that he’d been called too young as though that should be a reason anyone gets denied anything, though it seemed right on par. As he walked in, he greeted his Head of House Professor Josephs, glancing over her rune table. It certainly did look interesting and was the type of academic course he was probably looking for. Muggle Studies too, but he though he knew enough about that to not actually bother doing it. Not when he would have to do his OWLs and NEWTs with his dad - maybe if he was doing the younger classes with his dad and the older classes with this other professor he would have been more inclined to consider it, but he already technically did the fifth year course when he sat in the classes. Though he hadn’t actually participated, still! Care of Magical creatures felt like it might have been too hands on for him, though he was interested in Arithmancy. He shrugged and moved back towards the Ancient Runes table, looking between the professors. “Is Ancient Runes as academic as it looks?”

@Professor Kahurangi Josephs ​

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

Tori wasn’t a muggleborn but both of her parents were so she felt like she had a pretty good understanding of what was what in the muggle world, as well as in the magical one. Having lived sort of between them for most of her life. Whilst her mother did live in the magical world, she was still very muggle oriented, in Tori’s experience and from what she understood hadn’t had a great perception of magic. She’d been slowly trying to change that mostly by not telling her mum how hard her first year had been, but she wasn’t stupid enough to think her mother wan’t perceptive enough to pick it up. Still, Muggle Studies could have been a beneficial class, maybe. As she walked up to the two professors, one of them she knew only too well from her trouble with Demi (so she decided to mostly ignore him save for a passing polite greeting) and asked, “having grown up mostly muggle, both my parents are muggle born, is there any benefit to someone like me taking this class since I probably know most of what you’ll teach me anyway?” Why give herself more homework if she didn’t have to after all?

@Professor Killian Fox @Professor Conan Edogawa ​

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Professor Minnie Calida didn't mind in the slightest advertising her class. She didn't think people appreciated enough the interesting topic of Arithmancy. She thought it was the best subject ever, and as someone who had done all the classes, she felt qualified to say that. She brought some textbooks and extracts for what Arithmancy was all about and set herself up in the courtyard ready to speak to students as they wanted and needed to.

 

[Professor Yvonne Dubois]

Yvonne always liked the electives fair since it was a time she could speak openly and enthusiastically about her area of expertise. Usually most students already knew what they wanted to learn about but she was still pleased to sit around and answer any questions they had. She set up a table with some tools of her trade like tarot cards, a crystal ball, and some diagrams of palms and birth charts. She sat with her arms crossed casually across her chest and waited to see if anyone had some questions as she waited for Elvera to join her.

 

[Eoghan Blyth]

Eoghan had so many questions for the Professors at the Electives fair, that he'd actually had to write out a list. Part of him was tempted just to take every subject, because the idea that he could miss out on something important and later not be able to rectify it held strong, especially given he wasn't exactly sure what he wanted to do when he was older. Perhaps it would be something in the medical industry, or the science, but either way Eoghan needed to be able to work both around muggles all while be better because of his magical abilities.

As he walked around the different tables, he'd been asking the specific professors questions to gauge whether or not he should be taking their lesson and whether it would help him the future he saw for himself. It was hard to tell, but Eoghan wanted to make sure he was a knowledgeable as possible before making his choices.

Questions:​

@Professor James Cade Will you use any curses on us?

@Professor Benjamin Kaster II Do you think COMC is a good subject for someone who isn't trying to work with animals? Are there any benefits to knowing more about animals if you're not sure that they'll ever come up in a future career for you?

@Professor Marigold Cooper You told me once that you also read Tarot Cards - Will this come up in Ancient Runes? I think this subject will be very interesting, but what can you do with it outside of reading Runes?

@Professor Conan Edogawa I'm already studying a number of muggle subjects with Callie from Gryffindor because we don't want to miss out on those subjects while we're here. Can we learn these with you too?

@Professor Killian Fox Is this subject worth taking if you grew up around muggles anyway?

@Professor Kahurangi Josephs What's the difference between Divination and Ancient Runes? Aren't they more or less the same thing but using a different medium?

@Professor Minnie Calida What's the difference between Divination and Arithmancy? Isn't Arithmancy using Maths to gain a reading? What sort of career would this be best for?

@Professor Yvonne Dubois I already know I want to take Divination, I've been reading Tarot Cards for years. What's your favourite medium though for predicting the future? And how do you use the results of your readings?

 

[Felix Layton-King]

Felix was doing his darndest to avoid Professor Cade. Last time he'd spoken to him he'd given him a speaking to after finding out he was involved with his daughter. He ducked out the way of his Head of House and headed straight over toward Jonah's dad, someone he was becoming more acquainted with as time went on. The blonde looked across the table at the display going on, sniggering at the box of Cards Against Humanity, remembering the time he'd come across those cards with Jonah. "I'll take this subject, but only if it means we have card game Friday's." Felix announced with a grin, putting his foot down.

@Professor Conan Edogawa ​

 

[Professor Benjamin Kaster II]

Ben was glad that he could be of some help, even if he was the upper years professor, it did mean he was more aware of what was needed and where the class would take the students so when a young Ravenclaw came to talk to him he was happy to help guide him. He nodded, it was a valid concern of course. "Care of Magical creatures isn't just for those who want to work directly with magical beasts, or those who think they want to step into breeding. The course teaches you valuable skills that can be applied to many different fields. Having the understanding of how they operate, what can harm them, what can help them, their environment will help you to understand the creatures themselves. It will help you develop critical thinking skill, patience, adaptability, and you’ll come to understand that the direct approach is not always the correct approach. A friend of mine is a healer, and he specialises in Magical Creatures, if a patient comes in with an injury sustained by creatures, or around creatures, he’s readily able to identify it, help them recover because he knows what creature did it, or how, or why it might have been obtained, even where.“ He said, thinking about Zennon - who he supposed wasn’t really a friend perse, but still. They were in each other’s orbit.

“Even if you don’t plan on working with animals, any career can benefit from it, Care of Magical Creatures can be useful in a lot of surprising ways. I don’t know if you have a career in mind yet, but some professions, like curse-breaking, wand-making, potion-brewing, or even magical law, often require some minimal amount of knowledge or understanding to be able to do what they need. If you wanted to go into wandmaking for example, understanding how the cores work is important, the natures of the creature you might use.” He leaned back a little in his seat, thinking. “You never know when you might encounter one, there aren’t a lot of magical creatures walking about in the world, wild, free, these days, but there are certainly still enough to give you a bit of a jump scare on occasion if you’re not prepared. It’s always good to know how to either avoid them, or keep both of you safe for that reason alone. It’s always good to be vigilent, and prepared.” If this boy wanted to go into the Ministry in any capacity, it was always handy to know. He’d had a lot of creature encounters in his time as an Auror as well. “I hope that answers your question.”

@Eoghan Blyth ​

 

[Professor Marigold Cooper]

Ari remembered the boy who asked her the question, and she remembered him talking about tarot. She wasn’t surprised about the question he asked, in fact she had kind of been hoping he would ask something similar. Tarot of course didn’t have a lot to do with Ancient Runes and the course was not exactly similar to Divination, but there were definitely merits in taking both together. “That’s a great question Mr. Blyth,” she hoped she would see him in her class next year, if she did a good job of convincing him. “Yeah, I do read Tarot, but Ancient Runes ain’t really about Divination like that. Runes can be used for somethin’ similar—like casting ‘em to get a reading—but that’s not the real heart of what they’re about, or what they can do for ya. Here, we’re lookin’ at how runes work as a language and how they hold magic of their own.” she said, tapping the little sign that changed frequently between runic language and english. “Readin’ runes is real useful in heaps of careers, but there’s plenty more ya can do with ‘em too. They’re used in all kinds of spellwork—enchantments, wardin’, even bringin’ old artefacts back to life. Some runes got their own power, yeah? And others can boost magic that’s already there. Gettin’ a handle on ‘em is a big part of understandin’ magic properly. They’re a strong tool to have in your kit as a grown-up wizard. If ya really wanna get magic, learnin’ runes first is a pretty key step on that path.”

@Eoghan Blyth ​

 

[Professor Conan Edogawa]

"I... didn't know what to bring," Conan told Killian with a sigh as he settled and took a pack of playing cards to shuffle absent-mindedly. Just so he could have something to do while waiting for the students to start milling about. Last year had been relatively quiet and he'd mostly ended up playing board games with a couple of professors. But this year would have his kids and niece milling about so fingers crossed that their friends would be around for Conan and Killian to convince to take Muggle Studies. "I thought about bringing more but they got too heavy and I think my arms almost fell off," he said gesturing to the now four empty bags on the floor which he used to carry all the items. (@Professor Killian Fox)

When the students started arriving, he sort of pouted when none of his kids elected to go to his booth and instead scattered off into various electives. Mean. He had such mean kids. That was fine. He loved them all anyway. And then Miss Tori de Lacey decided to come up to them, and he could almost feel just how unwilling she was to talk to him, which also made him pout. Was she still mad at him for the detentions? And here he thought they had fun when he taught her how to punch. "The Muggle Studies course for older students currently focuses on muggle culture and navigating the muggle world passably. I suppose there wouldn't be much for you to learn from me, but I would highly value your opinion with regard to what can be added or removed from the course. I'm also not above giving extra credit for assistance in classes to clarify things from a muggle-raised perspective. And especially, I wouldn't mind a hand on eventual field trips - for extra credit, of course. I can't speak for the lower years, but while my class has your OWLs and your NEWTs, the course load is relatively light. I don't require homework and mostly encourage discussions in class outside of the need for the lectures," he explained before turning over to Killian. It was, of course, harder to convince kids who had already grown up surrounded by muggle influences, though honestly, they were probably more needed in the class than they needed the class, in Conan's opinion. Sometimes, it was just easier to hear things from your peers than your professor. (@Victoria de Lacey)

Conan couldn't help but beam, though, when another student came up to their table that seemed to have different questions for Conan and Killian. He pondered on the question for him for a bit before smiling, "I'm afraid Muggle Studies is not a class to further your muggle education on. However, I would be perfectly happy to assist you and Miss Callie in your studies for some subjects. I'm afraid that others will be quite out of my reach since I've only passably studied some muggle subjects, and I've only done about six years of muggle primary. I'm already catching my children up on their Japanese education in my office on some days, so you are welcome to study there as well if that helps. If you're open to helping us professors teach your yearmates about muggles, though, you're welcome to sign up as well for the Muggle Studies class." He really hoped that he answered Ravenclaw's question, especially before he got distracted by Felix coming up to their table. He laughed and reached out to mess up Felix's head before scouring through the pile of muggle stuff to find a pack of Uno cards to hand to Jonah's friend. "You can't play in class, Felix. I don't think Professor Fox would appreciate it much. But you could always pop into my office for card games on Fridays," he chuckled. (@Eoghan Blyth, @Felix Layton-King)​

 

[Jonah Edogawa]

Jonah had always thought that Professional Quidditch was his only path in life. However, with how... subpar... his playing has been, he began to think that perhaps it was time to evaluate his life choices. Which meant that he had to figure out if there was any class he would be any good at. It didn't seem like there would be really. He was having difficulty imagining that there could be a class that he was good at. The Electives Fair was almost overwhelming. He didn't know where he should go or what questions he needed to ask that it felt like being here was going to be useless. He bit his lip as he looked at everything and almost considered just hiding out in his dad's booth before he saw the Care of Magical Creatures area. He'd heard that the CoMC class was exclusively done outside, which was tempting alone. Being in the outdoors always made Jonah feel better more than sitting in a classroom did and maybe he was just a little bit curious. So he tugged on Lumos' robe to gesture towards the CoMC booth before he hesitantly made his way towards it. He waited until Eoghan had left before he approached fully, his eyes settled on what looked like what remained of a rather large egg. He almost reached out to touch it before pulling his hand back like a kid caught in the cookie jar and looking up at the professor wide-eyed. He didn't have the best track record with professors. Even Lumos' dad milling about made him a little nervous. It was then he realized that he... didn't really have a question yet. "H-hi," he said as he looked more around the booth and found riddles and games which made him even more nervous. "A-am... I... uh... Do... W-what if I don't know the answers? C-can I still take the class?"

@Professor Benjamin Kaster II ​

 

[Professor Benjamin Kaster II]

Ben looked up as a Hufflepuff approached, one of Conan's he was sure. He looked nervous, and that was not surprising, this kind of thing could be overwhelming for anyone. Picking electives was serious business for some of these kids. Especially if they weren't sure what they wanted to be doing. "It's hard to know the answers when you haven't taken any classes yet, isn't it?" he asked, smiling softly at the boy. "That's what these classes will do for you, once you've had some experience, you'll know exactly what everything is," he picked up a picture of a Unicorn and held it out to the boy. "You know what this is don't you? And I know you have a bit of an idea about what this is," he said, gesturing to the dragon egg. "I don't expect you to be able to identify that it's the egg of a Welsh Green, just as I don't expect you to know what gender this is," he said, gesturing to the unicorn. "What we would expect is that you keep open minded, and willing to learn. Do you think you can do that?"

@Jonah Edogawa ​

 

[Jonah Edogawa]

Jonah could agree that the professor was right, but the professors in school also asked questions all the time. Questions that Jonah almost never knew the answers to which usually made him wonder if he was stupid because sometimes he'd try to read ahead but the book was a little hard to understand most days that he'd have to read it at least twice to get what it was saying sometimes. Still he took the offered picture and smiled softly. "A unicorn," he said almost proudly. He'd never seen one before, and he would really like to see one though he'd heard they never approach boys. He looked at the egg in wonder and was now glad he didn't touch it because what if he broke it? "It's a real dragon egg?" he asked. He didn't know much about dragons but he knew some breeds. The Welsh Green was something that was vaguely familiar, though he knew more about the Fireball. Studying Care of Magical Creatures was becoming more and more tempting but sitting in the classroom and learning all about them would have been... he didn't think he'd like to just imagine what it would be like. "Will... will we get to see any of them?" he asked as he looked at the illustrations on the booth before his eyes landed on the unicorn drawing in his hands. It would be nice even if he couldn't come near.

@Professor Benjamin Kaster II ​

 

[Professor Benjamin Kaster II]

Ben was a practical guy, he didn't want to mislead Jonah into thinking everything about Care of Magical creatures was going to be about the creature itself. "That's right, a real dragon egg. I'm not going to lie to you, a lot of what we do in this class is learning how to safely stay away from certain creatures, how to keep yourself and others safe and for some of our less friendly creatures, there will be lectures involved because it would be dangerous for students to get up close and personal with Merpeople for example, or Blast-ended Skrewts." He knew there was a lesson on them in the lower years, but he had never sat in on Eleanor's classes to know exactly what she went over. "What I will say is, on my end I try to make my classes as engaging as possible, I like for my students to have a more hands on experience wherever possible, and yes, to meet some of the creatures we will be going over. In your third year you will mostly be studying house hold pets, or the kinds of pets your more likely to come across in your day to day life," he said, holding up a couple of the pictures he'd brought with him. "Your flobberworms, bowtruckles, doxies and pixies," he put them back on the table, "and you'll understand that a lot of these require a lecture because it's important to know how to handle them, how to keep yourself and those around you safe." He didn't want to say too much about Eleanor's course without Eleanor to speak for herself, but he also didn't want Jonah to be discouraged if they didn't get to meet creatures on day one. "What I can say is that your first Care of Magical Creatures lesson in your fifth year, you will meet a unicorn. I can promise you that." They could talk about the others later, if he was interested.

@Jonah Edogawa​

 

[Eurydice Nightray]

Eurydice had been looking forward to elective year forever. She already knew one elective she was going to take and one that she was most definitely not going to take. Whether she had gone to the Fair or not, it was definite that Eury would be taking Divination. It was the class that she had been looking forward to attending since coming to Hogwarts only to find out that she wouldn't be allowed to take it until third year. And then there was Care of Magical Creatures which she was sure she wasn't taking. She didn't even like Herbology so dealing with a class that dealt with Care and Creatures was definitely out. She was still debating on Muggle Studies, but she was sure anything she wanted to learn, Conan-ojii would be willing to teach her outside of class. That left two classes. For now, she was going to have to go to Arithmancy since that was the one she had the least idea about. Seeing one of the professors there she decided to approach. "Is there any link between Arithmancy and Divination?"

@Professor Minnie Calida ​

 

[Victoria de Lacey]

Tori was a little annoyed that she hadn’t addressed Professor Edogawa and he’d gone out of his way to talk to her anyway, however, she did appreciate that he wasn’t lying and did tell her that the course probably wouldn’t give her anything specifically. She took a second to frown at him before sighing and nodding. “Okay, I guess that makes sense. I’ll definitely think about it.”

@Professor Conan Edogawa ​